Kirk Cameron: Modern Martyr

Kirk Cameron's all mixed up again.

In the above video, in which he's promoting a movie or something, he claims to be a "recovering atheist." Saying that not believing what he does is like alcoholism or cancer - which is, of course, something else he believes. Atheists are all diseased people. He goes on to say that in order to be a "good atheist," (which he wasn't, or he wouldn't be in recovery) every atheist has to believe two things:

Let me stop you right there, Kirk. No. There is nothing an atheist has to believe, do or say. It's not a club, it's not a group, we don't have ID cards or hats or congregations. (There are probably conventions, but I'd rather not know about them.) There's no test of atheist membership; no atheist baptisms or christenings or confirmations or circumcisions or pilgrimages or pledges or prayers. It's kind of a nothing-seeming arrangement if you're looking at it from the outside, because for the most part, there's nothing to do.

Anyway, his two things: Atheists must believe there is no god. This is patently false, and is often understood in this way by people who have used their faith so much they forget how to reason. I have always thought that faith is like a hammer. A blunt tool that works great on one, maybe two things, but when you start trying to apply it to precise and elegant tasks, it breaks everything and you have to start over. Kirk has made the classic believer's error of mistaking non-belief in a god for belief there is no god. Take your time. That's a fine distinction that can't be parsed with a hammer, or in a minute and half YouTube video, and if I weren't feeling charitable today, I'd suspect he made it on purpose.

In the Book of Kirk, atheists also have to hate God. Since this is ridiculous to the point of unintelligibility, I'm going to assume for a moment that Kirk did this deliberately as a rhetorical device instead of wading into the dual impossibilities of hating something that doesn't exist while substituting an emotion for an actual belief. What I think happens here is transference; since people hate what comes out of Kirk's noise hole and would like him to shut up, he assumes they hate God, because that's easier for him to do. He goes on to assert that atheists hate God's moral standard. This is Classical Christian Condescension, because it tacitly asserts that the only proper moral standard comes from Christians, and everyone else is immoral. If that's the case, though, and Kirk's the embodiment thereof? Then he and I can agree on this - I am not enjoying this moral standard, such as it is.

The other place we find agreement is where he says that atheists hate how God (he means people like himself) are "transforming the world." He's right again - I hate the dumbing down effect conversations like this have on everyone, I hate the false martyrdom, and I hate the fact that a liar and "celebrity" like Cameron can promote his movie with an attack on a group of people and not have it called hate speech.

See what I did there? I agreed with Kirk Cameron. Twice. It's a special day.

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Kirk Cameron: Modern Martyr

Kirk Cameron's all mixed up again.

In the above video, in which he's promoting a movie or something, he claims to be a "recovering atheist." Saying that not believing what he does is like alcoholism or cancer - which is, of course, something else he believes. Atheists are all diseased people. He goes on to say that in order to be a "good atheist," (which he wasn't, or he wouldn't be in recovery) every atheist has to believe two things:

Let me stop you right there, Kirk. No. There is nothing an atheist has to believe, do or say. It's not a club, it's not a group, we don't have ID cards or hats or congregations. (There are probably conventions, but I'd rather not know about them.) There's no test of atheist membership; no atheist baptisms or christenings or confirmations or circumcisions or pilgrimages or pledges or prayers. It's kind of a nothing-seeming arrangement if you're looking at it from the outside, because for the most part, there's nothing to do.

Anyway, his two things: Atheists must believe there is no god. This is patently false, and is often understood in this way by people who have used their faith so much they forget how to reason. I have always thought that faith is like a hammer. A blunt tool that works great on one, maybe two things, but when you start trying to apply it to precise and elegant tasks, it breaks everything and you have to start over. Kirk has made the classic believer's error of mistaking non-belief in a god for belief there is no god. Take your time. That's a fine distinction that can't be parsed with a hammer, or in a minute and half YouTube video, and if I weren't feeling charitable today, I'd suspect he made it on purpose.

In the Book of Kirk, atheists also have to hate God. Since this is ridiculous to the point of unintelligibility, I'm going to assume for a moment that Kirk did this deliberately as a rhetorical device instead of wading into the dual impossibilities of hating something that doesn't exist while substituting an emotion for an actual belief. What I think happens here is transference; since people hate what comes out of Kirk's noise hole and would like him to shut up, he assumes they hate God, because that's easier for him to do. He goes on to assert that atheists hate God's moral standard. This is Classical Christian Condescension, because it tacitly asserts that the only proper moral standard comes from Christians, and everyone else is immoral. If that's the case, though, and Kirk's the embodiment thereof? Then he and I can agree on this - I am not enjoying this moral standard, such as it is.

The other place we find agreement is where he says that atheists hate how God (he means people like himself) are "transforming the world." He's right again - I hate the dumbing down effect conversations like this have on everyone, I hate the false martyrdom, and I hate the fact that a liar and "celebrity" like Cameron can promote his movie with an attack on a group of people and not have it called hate speech.

See what I did there? I agreed with Kirk Cameron. Twice. It's a special day.